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STATISTICAL 


COMMITTEE  ON  THE  WAR  AND  THE 
RELIGIOUS  OUTLOOK 
105  East  22d  Street,  New  York 


Preliminary  Statement  as  to  the  Origin  and 
Purpose  of  the  Committee. 


Recognizing  that  the  war  lias  placed  upon  the 
churches  the  duty  of  the  most  thorough  self- 
examination,  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches 
of  Christ  in  America,  acting  in  cooperation 
with  the  General  War-Time  Commission  of. 
the  Churches,  has  requested  a group  of  repre- 
sentative men  to  constitute  a Committee  on  the 
War  and  the  Religious  Outlook,  the  purpose  of 
which  is  “to  consider  the  state  of  religion  as 
affected  by  the  war,  with  special  reference  to  the 
duty  and  the  opportunity  of  the  churches,  and 
to  prepare  its  findings  for  submission  to  the 
churches.”  The  Committee,  while  created 
through  the  initiative  of  these  two  bodies,  has 
been  given  entire  freedom  to  act  according  to 
its  own  judgment,  and  is  empowered  to  add  to 
its  number.  As  at  present  constituted,  it  con- 
sists of  the  following  persons: 

Bishop  J.  W.  Bashford 
Mrs.  Fred  S.  Bennett 
Professor  William  Adams  Brown 
Mr.  George  W.  Coleman 
Miss  Mabel  Cratty 
President  W.  H.  P.  Faunce 
Professor  Harry  Emerson  Fosdick 
Rev.  Samuel  G.  Inman 
Professor  Charles  M.  Jacobs 
President  Henry  Churchill  King 


Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth 

Bishop  Francis  J.  McConnell 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland 

President  Win.  Douglas  Mackenzie 

Dean  Shailer  Mathews 

Dr.  John  R.  Mott 

President  E.  Y.  Mullins 

Rev.  Frank  Mason  North 

The  Very  Rev.  Howard  C.  Robbins 

Dr.  Robert  E.  Speer 

Rev.  Anson  Phelps  Stokes 

Rev.  James  I.  Vance 

Professor  Henry  B.  Washburn 

President  Henry  Churchill  King  has  been 
elected  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  and  Pro- 
fessor William  Adams  Brown,  Vice-Chairman. 

The  propriety  of  such  an  inquiry  as  the  Com- 
mittee proposes  needs  no  defense.  In  every 
department  of  human  experience  it  is  recognized 
that  the  war  must  make  great  changes,  and  that 
the  most  careful  preparation  is  needed  in  order 
that  the  transition  from  the  old  to  the  new  may 
be  wisely  made.  Religion  is  no  exception.  The 
church,  like  the  nation,  faces  new  duties  and  new 
responsibilities  and,  if  she  is  to  meet  them  suc- 
cessfully, must  base  her  action  upon  a solid 
foundation  of  knowledge. 

This  fact  has  been  recognized  by  our  fellow 
Christians  in  Great  Britain.  No  less  than  nine 
different  committees  and  commissions  have 
been  at  work  upon  various  phases  of  the  religious 
and  moral  situation.  Five  have  been  appointed 
by  the  Church  of  England;  two  by  the  Presby- 
terian churches  of  Scotland;  two  are  of  an  inter- 
den  minoational  character. 


Of  the  two  interdenominational  commissions 
one  deals  chiefly  with  moral  problems;  the  other 
with  the  effects  of  the  war  upon  religion.  The 
field  of  the  latter  inquiry  has  been  primarily 
the  army,  and  much  valuable  material  has  been 
collected  bearing  upon  the  attitude  of  the  men 
toward  religion,  the  changes  which  the  war  has 
made,  and  especially  the  attitude  of  the  men  to 
the  organized  church. 

The  commissions  appointed  by  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  Presbyterian  churches  deal 
with  special  topics,  such  as  the  Church  and  the 
industrial  situation,  evangelism,  religious  edu- 
cation, worship,  ecclesiastical  government,  and 
the  like.  It  will  doubtless  be  found  wise  in  this 
country  for  the  different  churches  to  appoint 
special  committees  to  make  similar  detailed 
studies  of  various  aspects  of  the  war  problem. 
The  aim  of  the  present  committee  is  to  attempt 
a bird’s-eye  view  of  the  situation  as  a whole. 
Four  main  lines  of  inquiry  suggest  themselves 
as  of  chief  importance: 

(1)  What  effect  has  the  war  had  upon  the 
personal  religious  experience?  How  far  has  it 
reinforced,  how  far  altered,  the  existing  type  of 
religious  thought  and  life? 

(2)  What  effect  has  the  war  had  upon  the 
organized  Christian  Church?  What  changes, 
if  any,  are  called  for  in  its  spirit  and  activities? 

(3)  What  effect  in  particular  has  the  war  had 
upon  the  thought  of  men  about  Christianity? 
What  changes,  if  any,  are  called  for  in  doctrinal 
statements  or  proportional  emphases? 

(4)  Finally,  what  effect  has  the  war  had  upon 
the  duty  of  the  Church  to  the  social  life  of  the 


time?  What  reconstruction  is  called  for  in  our 
political,  economic  and  social  life? 

In  approaching  these  questions  it  is  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  committee  to  secure 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  facts.  If  we  invite 
suggestions  as  to  possible  changes,  it  is  only  as 
these  grow  naturally  out  of  the  facts,  and  seem 
necessary  to  conserve  the  lessons  they  have 
taught. 

For  information  to  guide  us  in  our  inquiry  we 
turn  first  to  the  army  and  navy.  Our  soldiers 
and  sailors  feel  the  shock  of  war  in  its  most  acute 
and  unrelieved  form.  They  realize  most  keenly 
the  contrast  between  things  as  they  were  and  the 
new  situation  into  which  the  war  has  plunged 
us.  From  their  ranks  must  come  the  leaders 
in  the  tasks  of  reconstruction  which  must  follow 
after  the  war.  Upon  them  therefore  we  must 
rely  for  our  most  trustworthy  information  as  to 
the  effect  of  the  war  upon  religion. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  remember  that  they 
are  not  the  only  persons  whom  the  war  affects. 
Conditions  in  the  army  are  abnormal  and  tend 
to  produce  a standardized  experience  which, 
unless  controlled  from  other  sources,  is  not  a safe 
guide  for  sweeping  generalization.  Other  wit- 
nesses also  must  be  heard  if  we  are  to  gain  a 
complete  picture  of  the  effect  of  war  upon  re- 
ligion. The  members  of  the  home  churches, 
the  fathers  and  mothers  who  are  facing  new 
experiences  of  bereavement,  the  workers  in  our 
munition  factories,  women  entering  new  fields 
and  assuming  new  responsibilities;  onlookers  in 
foreign  countries;  Christian  converts  on  the 


mission  field;  earnest  men  and  women  of  the 
ethnic  faiths — all  these  we  must  take  into  ac- 
count if  we  are  to  understand  the  significance 
of  the  experience  through  which  we  are  passing. 

It  is  our  hope  to  draw  on  all  these  sources  of 
information.  The  committee  includes  men  and 
women  who  are  in  touch  with  representatives  of 
each  of  the  groups  above  mentioned;  but  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  for  adequate  evidence,  we 
must  depend  largely  upon  the  voluntary  assist- 
ance of  persons  who  feel  the  importance  of  our 
study  sufficiently  to  be  willing  to  help  us  by  their 
time,  their  counsel  and  their  sympathetic  inter- 
est. 

For  the  assistance  of  such  generous  helpers 
we  have  prepared  a questionnaire  covering  the 
four  main  lines  of  inquiry  already  referred  to. 
The  topics  have  been  chosen  not  as  covering 
the  ground,  but  as  suggesting  the  kind  of  in- 
quiries in  which  the  committee  is  interested, 
and  on  which  it  will  be  glad  to  have  light.  It 
is  desired  that  the  correspondents  treat  the 
questionnaire  with  great  freedom,  altering  or 
supplementing  the  questions  in  any  way  they 
prefer.  We  particularly  hope  that  they  will 
deal  at  length  with  such  aspects  of  the  inquiry 
as  interest  them  most  deeply,  or  any  others  not 
touched  upon  in  the  printed  statement,  that 
seem  to  them  germane  to  the  purpose  of  the 
inquiry.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  no 
one  will  be  quoted  by  name  and  no  information 
given  that  will  lead  to  recognition  except  with 
the  express  permission  of  the  individual  in 
question. 


For  the  special  use  of  those  who  are  closely  in 
touch  with  the  situation  in  the  army  and  navy 
we  have  printed  also  the  questions  used  by  the 
English  committee  for  this  purpose,  covering 
three  main  lines  of  inquiry: 

(1)  What  are  the  men  in  the  army  and  navy 
thinking  about  religion,  morality  and  society? 

(2)  What  changes  has  the  war  made  in  their 
moral  and  religious  outlook  and  character? 

(3)  What  do  they  think  of  the  churches  and 
of  their  own  relation  to  them? 

In  behalf  of  the  Committee 

Henry  Churchill  King, 

Chairman 

William  Adams  Brown, 

Vice-Chairman 

105  East  22d  Street,  New  York 


16 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/committeeonwarreOOcomm 


